John Campbell (author) - Further Works

Further Works

In 1741 appeared his ‘Concise History of Spanish America’ (second edition 1755), and in 1742 ‘A Letter to a Friend in the Country on the Publication of Thurloe's State Papers,’ in which John Thurloe's then newly issued folios are reviewed. In the same year were issued vols. i. and ii. of ‘The Lives of the Admirals and other Eminent British Seamen,’ &c. The two remaining volumes appeared in 1744. The work was translated into German, and three other editions of it were published in Campbell's lifetime. After his death there were several editions of it, with continuations to the dates of issue, an abridgement of it appearing in 1870.

In 1743 appeared anonymously his English version, with copious annotations, of the Latin work of Johann Heinrich Cohausen, ‘Hermippus Redivivus; or, the Sage's Triumph over Old Age and the Grave.’ It reached a third edition in 1771. In 1743 also appeared his translation from the Dutch, ‘The True Interest and Political Maxims of the Republic of Holland.’ The original is ascribed wrongly to John de Witt; Campbell added to his translation memoirs of Cornelius and John de Witt.

In 1744 was published Campbell's much enlarged edition of John Harris's ‘Collection of Voyages and Travels’ (1702–5), ‘Navigantium atque Itinerantium Bibliotheca.’ In the ‘Account of the European Settlements in America,’ attributed to William Burke and Edmund Burke, the author expresses his obligations to this colossal work. A new edition in numbers was completed in 1749.

To Campbell has been generally ascribed the recast (1744) of ‘The Shepherd of Banbury's Rules to judge of the Changes of the Weather, by John Claridge, shepherd,’ first issued in 1670, and very popular in rural districts. Little more than a few words of the original title remained in the recast, which was frequently reprinted into the nineteenth century. It attempted to base on principles the weather forecasts of the alleged Banbury shepherd.